You mean the Gadgets? I use all of them except for the System Info. The hard drive, CPU, and RAM monitors the usage. I can see it spike in everything I do so it gives me an idea what's taking up resources. The time and calendar I need so I can get a glimpse as to what to do in the coming weeks. Google is integrated down there for quick Net search and same with the Shut Down buttons.
Holy moly look at alll those icons!!!! For your sidebar, there's a link you can click on in your sidebar control panel that allow you to go online to Microsoft's gadget page. There, you can get some really neat gadgets instead of the ones Windows come with.